Full excerpts,links up now at
http://www.zianet.com/insightanalyticalTomorrow at Buzzflash.com
WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 2, 2004
1//Inter Press Service, Italy--ANALYSIS: FALLUJAH PUNCTURES WASHINGTON’S OPTIMISM (… Iraq suddenly, if gruesomely, recaptured the headlines with Wednesday's horrific killings of four private U.S. security contractors, whose fiery and grisly end at the hands of an angry mob in the chronically rebellious city of Fallujah was caught on videotape…The pattern of these attacks suggested to T.X. Hammes, a senior military fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies who just returned from a two-month assignment in Iraq, that occupation forces face a real insurgency that will not be defeated in the short term. ''They plan to beat us'', he wrote, adding that the opposition now consists of disparate groups who are loosely allied ''to drive the U.S.-led coalition out of Iraq''. The ''quality'' of the mob's violence in the attack on the four security workers -- all former members of U.S. Special Operations Forces -- also struck Juan Cole, an Iraq specialist at the University of Michigan, as both remarkable and ominous.)
2//Albawaba, Jordan--BAGHDAD EXPO POSTPONED AS SECURITY CONCERNS GROW (In a major blow to US occupation efforts, the American backed Destination Baghdad Expo for companies involved in the reconstruction of Iraq was postponed on Thursday due to security concerns. The event was scheduled to open on April 5, 2004.)
3//The Independent, UK--NINTH MAN ARRESTED OVER ‘BOMB PLOT’ AS BLAIR BACKS ID CARDS (A ninth man was arrested in connection with a suspected al-Qa'ida bomb plot in the UK, and the father of the alleged ringleader was detained in Saudi Arabia yesterday. The developments came as Tony Blair indicated that identity cards were more likely to be introduced in Britain as a result of the Madrid bombings and the arrests of terrorist suspects in and around London…The Prime Minister claimed that the Government had won over those who opposed the controversial move for civil liberties reasons…Barry Hugill, spokesman for Liberty, said: "It is colossal arrogance on Tony Blair's part to say there are no civil liberty objections to ID cards; there are. There are so many objections. "The complex one is that the Government has singularly failed to show in what way an ID card will help combat crime, terrorism, or
immigration. There is no reason for us to believe that terrorists will not have ID cards, or manage to obtain forged ones.")
4//The Daily Times, Pakistan--PAKISTAN WANTS MORE TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN (Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri called on the United States on Thursday to reinforce troops in Afghanistan to defeat Al Qaeda militants and warlords who are thriving on a resurgent opium trade. Foreign Minister Kasuri, speaking after Islamabad signed up to an initiative with Afghanistan’s other neighbours to combat drugs trafficking, said 19,000 foreign troops were “just not enough” to return the country to stability.)
5//The Moscow Times, Russia--FEW LINING UP FOR ALTERNATIVE SERVICE (As the spring draft kicked off Thursday, only several hundred young men will exercise their new right to chose alternative service -- the result, activists said, of tough rules forcing conscripts who refuse to carry arms to serve away from home and a lack of good assignments…The Defense Ministry and other federal agencies with troops plan to draft a total of 166,050 conscripts this spring -- or about one in every 10 draft-age men who haven't served, conscription chief Colonel General Vasily Smirnov told reporters Wednesday.)
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
